1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a machine for crimping a plurality of electrical terminals one at a time onto wire leads, and, more particularly, to a crimping machine capable of inserting the terminated wire lead into a connector housing.
2. A Brief Description of Prior Art
U.S. Pat. No. 4,074,424 granted Feb. 21, 1978, entitled "Crimping and Wire Lead Insertion Machine" and assigned to the assignee of the present invention, discloses a machine for crimping a plurality of electrical terminals one at a time onto wire leads and, in addition feeds and indexes connector housings and inserts terminated wire leads into terminal receiving recesses of a connector housing.
More particularly, the machine of the above-identified patent application, the contents of which are incorporated by reference herein, includes a press actuable for up and down movement and a die assembly mounted on the press. The die assembly includes a die shoe with a crimp station whereat a terminal is crimped onto a wire lead, an insertion station whereat a terminated wire lead is presented, and a housing indexing assembly for supporting at least one connector housing having a plurality of terminal receiving recesses formed therein and indexing one of said recesses at the insertion station. Associated with the die shoe is an insertion assembly for inserting the terminated wire lead into a terminal receiving recess at the insertion station. A punch holder is provided opposite and spaced from the die shoe mounted over the crimp station to crimp a terminal thereat. The die assembly also includes a terminal feed assembly for supporting and feeding the strip of terminals one at a time to the crimp station in response to the movement of the press.
The machine disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,074,424 teaches the use of an insertion assembly including means for gripping a terminated wire lead at the crimp station. The assembly includes a pair of gripper members movable between an open position and a closed gripping position about the wire lead. These gripper members are mounted for movement between a normal crimp position where the end of the wire lead is held over the crimp station and an inserted position where the end of the terminated wire lead is moved to the insertion station and then back to the crimp position.
Although the machine disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,074,424 works in a satisfactory manner, it has been found that some terminated wire leads cannot be successfully inserted into the terminal receiving recess. This occurs because the gripper members grip the wire. If the wire is not sufficiently stiff or large gauged, it will buckle when the gripper members are moved to its inserted position.